Doing The Right Thing In College Athletics

Bravo to coach Lenny Tsantiris of the UConn women's soccer program and the UConn administration for its swift disciplinary action in suspending the young woman who gave the vulgar hand gesture to the TV camera following the recent American Athletic Conference soccer championship game from the NCAA soccer tournament [Nov. 10, Sports, "Huskies Win AAC Soccer Title; Player Suspended"].

It is hoped that the athlete shall learn from this mistake and become a productive student-athlete. Contrast this resolute reaction by UConn with the academic scandal at the University of North Carolina, wherein many years of academic fraud among its athletic teams was systemic, countenanced and blithely condoned, if not intentionally overlooked, by the administration and its various coaches.

In a figurative sense, were not all the so-called scholar-athletes at North Carolina, and in reality all of its coaches and athletic administrators, giving a metaphorical hand gesture to the fantasy and facade of academic integrity, priority and accountability?